An exhibition around the Vow of Louis XIII, while waiting for the installation of the famous painting at the Ingres-Bourdelle museum

A few days before Christmas, the Ingres-Bourdelle Museum (MIB) opened two new exhibitions to the public. The first is based around the painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Vow of Louis XIII. “Like every winter, we shine a light behind the scenes of the museum,” says Florence Viguier-Dutheil, director of the MIB and chief heritage curator. We highlight the riches of the museum, as they appear around Ingres or Bourdelle. This can be new acquisitions, enrichments or restorations. There, we started with the idea of ​​presenting a set of drawings by Ingres around the Vœu de Louis XIII”, she explains. An idea sparked in fact by the acquisition a few months earlier of a painted sketch of ‘Ingres representing the child Jesus from this famous painting “To show this sketch, we brought out some beautiful drawings by Ingres which are not shown all the time. The drawings are fragile and are stored most of the time in conservation boxes, she explains. This is therefore an opportunity for the public to find them again,” continues the curator.

The exhibition thus brings together pRoughly 70 works (drawings, watercolors and paintings), which are all tests and studies carried out by the Montalbanese artist for the preparation of his famous canvas. The latter, currently housed in the Montauban cathedral, should subsequently join the rooms of the MIB in order to finally be presented again to the Tarn-et-Garonne public. “There are still a few details to be resolved with the State, but the work will be placed in the museum for the duration of the work on the cathedral,” rejoices Florence Viguier-Dutheil. “That should happen in the spring.”

Also note that theThe exhibition is introduced by the works created by Ernest Pignon-Ernest around the Vœu de Louis XIII, stuck by the artist on the walls of the facade of the cathedral in 2009 on the occasion of the exhibition Ingres et les Modernes.

At the end of this exhibition, a space was also dedicated to the works of the Duchein couple, two Montalbanese collectors. “We were able to purchase some emblematic pieces from the collection of Paul and Jacqueline Duchein at a public sale at Christie’s. These works were purchased in September, but we were only able to recover them at the beginning of December,” reveals the museum director. We present them on the ground floor, accompanied by a box of Paul Duchein to show a little of all the facets of this colorful character.”

But these two exhibitions have barely been launched and the curator is already planning the next ones! “In March, we will present From fog to fog. We are welcoming a painting by Claude Monet, the Parliament of London, which is very generously and exceptionally lent to us by the Musée d’Orsay, announces Florence Viguier-Dutheil, in the part of the 100 works for the climate operation.

And to add: “To Based on a selection of works of art, the aim is to evoke climate issues, as painters or certain sculptors have described them. The painting by Claude Monet will be compared with one of our contemporary works by Olivier Debré, an abstract painter. He too was fascinated by the mists, but by those of Touraine.